Solo flashpoints with companions

[TheRealDestian]

As a 10 year veteran of rpgmmo's and someone who raided for 5 years I disagree YET again. The above is your opinion, my opinion is that like 90% of the respondants in this thread would be ecstatic.

 

No, they wouldn't.

 

The companion AI would need to be completely redone and people would still complain that it doesn't work.

 

Companions are not smart enough to know when to CC, avoid AoE, etc. Ergo, people would be on the forums demanding BW make FPs easier.

 

Perhaphs but it would require far less work than creating an entirely new operation that my monthly fee contributes towards providing additional content for raiders that I no longer wish to participate in. A.K.A. Tired of funding for content that only the minority participate in.

 

Developing new content is FAR less difficult than changing existing systems, and that includes ripping out the current companion interface and revamping it to fit 3 companions.

 

I don't think you have any comprehension about how difficult of a task this would be.

 

Well guess what, players that dont want to raid have absolutely no reason to play this game after reaching level 50 so you have at least a few more months up on us there.

 

This is how MMOs are: you either PvP or raid at endgame. WoW's endgame is no different and it's easily the most polished endgame of any MMO.

 

Wrong, because unlike you we dont have 1 main.............we would gear our first level 50 and run them again with another lvl 50 with his/her companions. In other words with 8 characters per server we would get years of fun & pleasure out of Swtor. Add in new content we could solo with our companions and there would be far to busy to even be on the forums "complaining we are bored".

 

Hyperbole and conjecture.

 

I can just as easily counter by saying that gearing one character+companions solo will be so boring that most people would quit after that.

 

If you would derive "years of fun and pleasure" from putting clothing on NPCs to the point that you'd forsake playing with actual humans to do it, maybe you're looking for a fashion design game instead of an MMO.

 

Either you have difficulty reading or your comprehension is sorely lacking. If you were around 12 months prior to beta you'd be aware that Swtor was supposed to be solo/casual friendly game. I am not asking for anything to be remade, I am asking what is in the pipeline to encourage players like myself to keep playing. You understand? do I need to change the size fonts?

 

It is solo and casual friendly.

 

You can get from 1-50 without ever having to talk to another human being and you can do it all on your own time. And you can go from 50 to BM gear by doing random WZs.

 

If you don't like raiding OR PvPing, there's not much to say but "why are you here?"

 

Thats all good and fine, but I would prefer it if BW told me that all future content will be grouped content and then I will happily go play elsewhere. Your suggestion of speaking on BW behalf is purely obnoxious, arrogant, and all to common of the flotsam that tends to infect rpgmmo's.

 

You should take my answer because you're not going to get one from them.

 

It's ironic you call ME arrogant when you can't even realize that BW is busy trying to fix all of the broken parts of the game and the notion of addressing the lack of solo content won't be dealt with until much, MUCH later, and yet you still demand they answer YOUR question.

 

Delusions of grandeur much?

 

Been there & done that, played wow for 7 years.........funded all by myself for the entirety of the duration and have no desire to return. Your attitude is beyond poor and i'm starting to think that anyone who suggests anything that your afraid might interfere with your concept of difficulty & fun is quickly esponged with venomous hate.

 

Wrong and you have accurately proven me right, while people exist over the internet such as yourself why on earth would anyone ever wish to participate in grouped content? Your one of the reasons why so many players prefer & enjoy solo play.

 

Thanks for your input in my thread, of all the replies there have been only 3 hate threads. Consider yourself to be amongst minority, and for showing why solo play has become more popular over the last few years. Your opinions have been noted & discarded.

 

The remedy for all of the issues you claim here is one simple thing: a good guild.

 

BW has already given you all of the tools needed to find one. I suggest you do so.

 

Like it or not, this is a multiplayer game and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

You should be looking less at how to replace the multiplayer aspect with companions and more about how to better integrate companions into the existing multiplayer aspect.

Edited February 3, 2012 by TheRealDestian

[Sabarok]

No, they wouldn't.

 

The companion AI would need to be completely redone and people would still complain that it doesn't work.

 

Companions are not smart enough to know when to CC, avoid AoE, etc. Ergo, people would be on the forums demanding BW make FPs easier.

 

I thought we went over this. Companion AI won't be changed and doesn't need to be changed. It is much more effective (not only easier on developers, but easier on the server's CPUs) to make small changes to the encounter to make them completed solo. This would mean removing 1 or 2 from trash mobs (or reducing a gold elite down to a silver strong) which takes away the CC need. Bosses with special AoEs that need avoiding can either have their specials not affect companions (so that only the player's character needs to avoid it), or remove it.

 

Though, I would love it if the companion AI was improved enough that they stopped doing AoE DPS when I have a CC'd mob in range. This would be good to have no matter what. I know I can manually turn them off, but it reduces the DPS. Keeping them off slows me down, keeping them off makes CC useless in an emergency. I only turn them off if I'm at a fight that's already killed me, and CC'ing one is the ideal solution.

 

If ever it is implemented that players solo a flashpoint with their companions, it will be required that a special difficulty be made available for that players. Not only for the flashpoint to be compled with only 1 player, but also to have a different loot table so that the better loot is only available to groups of players.

 

I recently solo'd through one of the old grey flashpoints. I don't remember the name, but I do recall that the boss encounter had 4 flames that would come down. I had to avoid them, but my companion was never affected by it.

 

Developing new content is FAR less difficult than changing existing systems, and that includes ripping out the current companion interface and revamping it to fit 3 companions.

 

Any new feature that Bioware develops is going to involve changing the existing systems. Any new content that doesn't require changing existing systems isn't going to be as exciting to players as new content that did come with changing existing systems (even if those changes are behind the scenes and invisible to players).

 

Adding an ability to fit 3 companions on the existing interface is a great new feature to develop, even if it's never used for solo flashpoints. Even if existing flashpoints don't support it, it would allow for the development of new unique flashpoints designed around players going in with 3 companions, perhaps as a special instance of their class quest. I think it would be great if the class quest ended in such an epic battle as to require bringing out 3 companions.

 

I don't think you have any comprehension about how difficult of a task this would be.

 

Difficult is not important for the Suggestion Box. We give the ideas, only Bioware truly knows the difficulty, it's for them to decide of an idea is worth doing or not. It could very well be that they decide 3 companions at a time is worth the difficulty, even if they also decide that modifying the old flashpoints to work with 3 companions isn't. The suggestion box isn't only to give ideas for Bioware to implement in the next 3 months, it's to also give them ideas to work towards over the next 6 years.

 

Difficulty isn't something players should care about. The only thing we should care about is if a change will bring harm to a game, and what can be done to avoid or minimize the harm in a way that is less than the good it brings, if possible. This is constructive. It is taking ideas and trying to build something out of it.

 

For Solo flashpoints, giving players 3 companions and access to the existing flashpoints on-level would be bringing more harm than good. Having an easier difficulty that players could solo with 1 companion countered with there being drastically less loot than the regular difficulty flashpoints that require a group brings in less harm than what it provides to players. The main reason any player does a flashpoint more than once is for the loot/reward.

 

I play LOTRO where it has a large selection of scalable dungeons called Skirmishes. These skirmishes can be done solo, duo, group of 3, group of 6, or even a group of 12. The challenge scales to the group size so the difficulty is basically the same, but the loot scales up dramatically. The best loot requires 6-12 players. Since adding the high end loot to the group skirmishes, the skirmishes have become incredibly popular for groups, even though they have a solo component. Everyone wants the loot.

 

This is how MMOs are: you either PvP or raid at endgame. WoW's endgame is no different and it's easily the most polished endgame of any MMO.

 

There's also various types of collection grinds. For SWTOR, an example would be the codex & datacrons. A great deal of Anarchy Online's end-game involved collecting useful items, many of which could be done solo but ate up a lot of time. In LOTRO, there are skirmish marks, deeds, and reputation points to collect. These give non-pvpers something to do when either queuing for a raid, or when there's not enough playtime to dedicate to a raid, or when taking a break between raids.

 

TL;DR: A 3-companion system would be an awesome feature to have, even if it didn't come with being accessible in the existing flashpoints for soloing. A solo-mode flashpoint where all the loot & reward is taken away won't do much to discourage grouping. These two aspects are neither mutually exclusive or mutually required.

[TheRealDestian]

TL;DR: A 3-companion system would be an awesome feature to have, even if it didn't come with being accessible in the existing flashpoints for soloing. A solo-mode flashpoint where all the loot & reward is taken away won't do much to discourage grouping. These two aspects are neither mutually exclusive or mutually required.

 

Let me put this delicately...

 

If the lead designer walked into a meeting with the programming team and told them, "Hey, everyone. We're going to give the player the ability to control three companions at once!" the very next thing they would do is crucify him to the meeting table, then hang the table off the side of the BW office building as a warning to other lead designers.

 

This game has been built from the GROUND UP so that one player has one companion. EVERY PvE encounter (short of hardmodes and Ops) has been designed with that dynamic in mind.

 

It would take months and months to rebalance FPs around the "companion party" idea, and even then, players with poorly geared companions or who can't micro manage 3 NPCs at once would STILL flood the forums complaining about how it's too hard.

 

People ALREADY complain on the forums about having lousy people to party with for FPs, and that's not even BW's fault!!!

 

Making FPs soloable with companions would be BW taking steps to MAKE it their fault.

 

For that and a number of other reasons I've already mentioned, they would never do this.

 

This is a "massively MULTIPLAYER online RPG". If people would prefer to do nothing but solo the entire game, WHY are they playing THIS instead of any of the number of single player games out there that would be better suited to what they're looking for?

 

The people who play an MMO for the solo experience are the minority. It's like trying to play an online FPS for a solo experience. The game is a MULTIPLAYER game by design and by nature, and again, BW isn't going to change that.

Edited February 3, 2012 by TheRealDestian

[BenjaminminU]

I support this idea, i'd love to take T7, Doc and Kira along to do a few of the flashpoints since i've worked hard to make sure that they are all well equipped.

 

Yes people will complain about flashpoints being too hard since they can't manage their companions but then they will have to group up with other players. Perhaps a warning message "this flashpoint is designed for a group and will be significantly harder without player support"

 

I think this should be added but only as long as there are no changes to the current flashpoints, players who play just for the story can just wait until higher level before doing flashpoints.

[DaxRendar]

Solo Flashpoints with ONE Companion (like LOTRO Skirmishes) YES PLEASE!!!

 

Solo Flashpoints with multiple Companions at the same time... no thanks

[TheRealDestian]

I support this idea, i'd love to take T7, Doc and Kira along to do a few of the flashpoints since i've worked hard to make sure that they are all well equipped.

 

Yes people will complain about flashpoints being too hard since they can't manage their companions but then they will have to group up with other players. Perhaps a warning message "this flashpoint is designed for a group and will be significantly harder without player support"

 

I think this should be added but only as long as there are no changes to the current flashpoints, players who play just for the story can just wait until higher level before doing flashpoints.

 

And this is why BW will never do this: no matter how much warning the game gives them, people are going to whine endlessly about how hard the content is and how it needs to be easier so they can continue playing alone in a multiplayer game.

[Beyorn]

As a sage I only really take one companion (tanker-teh lizard) out on my travels. For story reason and just cool factor it would be fun to have something that you could take all your companions on.

 

I'm not saying rework the original Flashpoints but maybe a mission or two would be fun.

[TheRealDestian]

As a sage I only really take one companion (tanker-teh lizard) out on my travels. For story reason and just cool factor it would be fun to have something that you could take all your companions on.

 

I'm not saying rework the original Flashpoints but maybe a mission or two would be fun.

 

It could be neat for ONE specific flashpoint that was designed with all companions in mind, but in no way would allowing this in EVERY flashpoint work.

[Sabarok]

If the lead designer walked into a meeting with the programming team and told them, "Hey, everyone. We're going to give the player the ability to control three companions at once!" the very next thing they would do is crucify him to the meeting table, then hang the table off the side of the BW office building as a warning to other lead designers.

 

Or they might say "I told you we should have planned for that at the beginning, but Nooo, you insisted we only have 1". They might also say "That sounds great. I'd love to do that".

 

STO has support for 4 companions. It's not something impossible to do.

 

This game has been built from the GROUND UP so that one player has one companion. EVERY PvE encounter (short of hardmodes and Ops) has been designed with that dynamic in mind.

 

All that would stay the same. I never suggested being able to use 3 companions everywhere. I was very explicit in saying that it would be in supported areas. For flashpoints, the 3-companion system would only be available in a difficulty mode designed specifically for that situation. The hardest one to do might be the Black Talon/Esseles, since players get access to that one when they only have 1 companion available, so that FP's easy-solo-mode would only be available to 1 companion.

 

It would take months and months to rebalance FPs around the "companion party" idea, and even then, players with poorly geared companions or who can't micro manage 3 NPCs at once would STILL flood the forums complaining about how it's too hard.

 

The existing FPs don't need to be balanced around 3 companions. They can be balanced around 1 companions. The two features do not need to go together. 3 companion FPs can be for future raids that are designed from the ground up for 3 companions.

 

For existing FPs, it would take a few days on each to add in a new difficulty and rebalance that one out for playing it solo with a single companion. If there was a feature for 3 companions, it would be less work rebalancing the instances, it might only take 1 day each FP.

 

I think an ideal situation for BW would be to "take" some of LOTRO's skirmish ideas and make Flashpoints scaleable. Players would choose the difficulty based on their group side (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 players) and the enemies would scale up and down. This would make the time investment in doing old flashpoints worth it, because not only are they making the content accessible to a wider variety of group sizes, but scaling also makes the old FPs useful to endgame players. Would you also argue that all this would be a waste of their time?

 

People ALREADY complain on the forums about having lousy people to party with for FPs, and that's not even BW's fault!!!

 

Making FPs soloable with companions would be BW taking steps to MAKE it their fault.

 

For that and a number of other reasons I've already mentioned, they would never do this.

 

There are plenty of reasons that BW may never do this feature. Doing it to avoid a "blame game" is not one of them.

 

This is a "massively MULTIPLAYER online RPG". If people would prefer to do nothing but solo the entire game, WHY are they playing THIS instead of any of the number of single player games out there that would be better suited to what they're looking for?

 

I've played MMOs where leveling required groups, and it was horrible. I'll not be doing it again. Some people described SWTOR as being "KOTOR with multiplayer chat", and my response is "you say that like it's a bad thing".

 

I socialize with my friends and my guild. They're the main reason I play. I can't be bothered to PUG. I'm not that type of person, but none of this is about socializing. Designing an MMO to force socializing on all players is a bad idea. You want to give incentives.

 

I already solo the flashpoints. I just wait for them to go grey, and run through them. PUG'ing for a flashpoint is a waste of my time. If I'm going to group, I'm going to do it with my guild.

 

Players don't do raids over and over and over and over to socialize with strangers. They do it to get the loot. As long as the best loot is only available in the group versions, you'll get your groups. And if there's a solo version, at least players can have done a practice run or two to get a basic feel for the instance.

 

The people who play an MMO for the solo experience are the minority. It's like trying to play an online FPS for a solo experience. The game is a MULTIPLAYER game by design and by nature, and again, BW isn't going to change that.

 

Actually, I play FPS games for their solo experience. I don't bother with the online component, but your FPS comparison is all PvP. If there was online FPSs designed for co-operative play instead of competitive play, I'd be far more likely to participate.

 

Not everyone has the same priorities as you do. The pure-multiplayer games are the grind games like the old school MMOs like Anarchy Online and Final Fantasy XI. Quest based MMOs that have come since WoW are aimed first at the solo players.

 

WoW showed that if you target the casual and make the game solo-friendly, you expand the playerbase enormously. If you took away all the loot from all the raids from WoW, would players continue PUG'ing those raids for the socializing? Players who want solo content are not the minority. The minority are the players who want to make things as hard as possible for "unsocial" players.

 

The socializers are getting their social aspect from their guild and from RP'ing. Some get their social kicks from PUG'ing, but they're a small minority. Most players who PUG are only doing it for the loot/reward. As long as the loot/reward stays in the group version, there will still be PUGs.

[TheRealDestian]

Or they might say "I told you we should have planned for that at the beginning, but Nooo, you insisted we only have 1". They might also say "That sounds great. I'd love to do that".

 

STO has support for 4 companions. It's not something impossible to do.

 

Impossible, no.

 

Feasible in terms of the number of work hours required to implement, balance and bug test vs. fixing other more pressing issues? Not for 3-4 years.

 

SWTOR is still playing catchup with WoW right now, and until they've brought the game on par with all of its features, they won't be throwing down on features like this.

 

Like I said, a SINGLE FP which can be soloed by a player by hacking in the ability to have 3 companions out would be one thing, but rebalancing the difficulty on all FPs to allow companion play would be a nightmare, as would changing the programming and interface required to support it.

 

Still, no one should be holding their breath for this as it probably goes against a lot of the design philosophy BW had behind FPs.

 

FPs are supposed to be epic battles where players MUST team up to achieve objectives, even unlikely alliances between smugglers and jedi, sith and bounty hunters. I don't think soloing them with companions falls under that heading.

[GellonSW]

DDO has implemented something like this for most of their dungeons though some still require PLAYER groups. You have Solo-Easy-Normal-Hard and Epic for endgame. Content and rewards scale based on difficulty.

[Sabarok]

Not for 3-4 years.

 

This is the suggestion box. 3-4 years is fine for threads in here. If Bioware gets enough to plan out the next 10 years of SWTOR development, mission accomplished.

 

Like I said, a SINGLE FP which can be soloed by a player by hacking in the ability to have 3 companions out would be one thing, but rebalancing the difficulty on all FPs to allow companion play would be a nightmare, as would changing the programming and interface required to support it.

 

All of which is fine. It being a nightmare is irrelevant for the suggestion box. If Bioware thinks an idea is worth it, they'll deal with the nightmare. LOTRO just announced mounted combat. I'm sure that was a nightmare to do, but such a feature will add much gameplay. 3 Companion support has potential to add new gameplay. We have all these companions that most of which never get used.

 

Still, no one should be holding their breath for this as it probably goes against a lot of the design philosophy BW had behind FPs.

 

First of all, players shouldn't be holding their breath of anything in the suggestion box. This is for ideas no matter how grand. As for the design philosophy, I think it was their intent that players be free to skip the group/FPs and leave them as an extra for those who have groups.

 

FPs are supposed to be epic battles where players MUST team up to achieve objectives, even unlikely alliances between smugglers and jedi, sith and bounty hunters. I don't think soloing them with companions falls under that heading.

 

Makes sense to me, but I still prefers LOTRO's Skirmish system for raiding, and the flashpoints would make for good candidates for that type of system. Having 3 companions would preserve the "epic" feel for it.

 

Really, this forum should be about what SWTOR can become and ways to make it better, and not about whether or not BW will actually do it or if it's worth the effort. This is the Suggestion Box. It's not as if a thread becomes popular enough that it becomes mandatory for SWTOR to implement, and it we chose the wrong thread, SWTOR closes the door because Bioware went broke trying to do it.

[Galbatorrix]

I would like to be able to truly solo flashpoints with 3 of my companions

 

I have dps, tank, & healing companions but most never get used nor do I bother to gear them for that reason. Being able to solo flashpoints using them would change that, not to mention I would run flashpoints more often.

 

 

 

How about this? Once you've completed the flashpoint 5 times in a 4 man group, the companion option opens up so you can more easily acquire the gear you've been after?

 

 

This would serve a lot of purposes...

 

- More people would run flashpoints to get to the 5 runs plateau

- People wouldn't care as much about others needing for companions because they'd be running these way more often.

- You would actually have a use for more than one companion and running a flashpoint with 3 of them would almost be like a mini game of sorts and another time sink to keep people playing.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Galbatorrix

[NoxiousAlby]

As a sage I only really take one companion (tanker-teh lizard) out on my travels. For story reason and just cool factor it would be fun to have something that you could take all your companions on.

 

I'm not saying rework the original Flashpoints but maybe a mission or two would be fun.

 

I could also agree with this, having my current companions filling the roles of tank, healer & dps seems so wastefull consider all of them bar one never see the outside of my ship.

[NoxiousAlby]

FPs are supposed to be epic battles where players MUST team up to achieve objectives, even unlikely alliances between smugglers and jedi, sith and bounty hunters. I don't think soloing them with companions falls under that heading.

And this is the very reason BW will fail to capture the casual/solo market that Blizz did with Wotlk. Once players have level capped & finished the story line on a couple of different characters there will be no reason to continue playing. Project Titan will be Blizz's next big thing & it is being aimed exclusively at the solo/casual market, trust me they know how big it truly is unlike yourself.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Averran
rude comment, recently warned

[Inarai]

And this is the very reason BW will fail to capture the casual/solo market that Blizz did with Wotlk.

 

What, because they grasp the fact that not every piece of content is for every playstyle?

[Cortechs]

I fully support adding the ability for a single player to do flashpoints. Whatever method is done to achieve this would be welcome to me. Having new solo flashpoints. as well as opening up normal FPs for companion use would be lovely.

 

Seeing how Rift and other MMOs have added similar things (some DUO like Rift, some solo like EQ2), I fully expect TOR to add this in as well in the future.

 

Oh, and ignore the troll.

[NoxiousAlby]

What, because they grasp the fact that not every piece of content is for every playstyle?

 

No because you can only play so many different character to immerse yourself in the storyline before you run out of things to do. I have a 50 Marauder, and absolutley loved the story line (especially chapter 2) but gave up on the Inquisitor because the stories are very similar. Again the Trooper (mine is lvl 46) has a rich and wonderfull story, currently i'm working on my IA and smuggler.

 

Point is once the storyline is done apart from pvp, which isnt enjoyable as a fresh 50, there is nothing else to do apart from rail space combat.

 

Is it so bad to to offer further incentives to solo play like heroic quests and flashpoints with 3 companions to keep players interest in the game?

 

There are a great number of players who prefer to play solo as well as husband & wife teams. To truly keep these players interested more needs to offered in the game

[Inarai]

No because you can only play so many different character to immerse yourself in the storyline before you run out of things to do.

 

Which is why they need to have good solo content But triple-companion Flashpoints wouldn't fill that niche - the mechanics would make it fall flat just in and of that. They'd have to be substantially redeveloped, which would be inefficient considering the damage it would to to the game in other areas - you can't argue the fact that they'd cease to encourage grouping, at least not to the extent that they do currently.

 

Thus, it's a far more effective use of resources and a much better solution to do actual, dedicated solo content to the same quality and to offer progression therein.

[NoxiousAlby]

Which is why they need to have good solo content But triple-companion Flashpoints wouldn't fill that niche - the mechanics would make it fall flat just in and of that. They'd have to be substantially redeveloped, which would be inefficient considering the damage it would to to the game in other areas - you can't argue the fact that they'd cease to encourage grouping, at least not to the extent that they do currently.

 

Thus, it's a far more effective use of resources and a much better solution to do actual, dedicated solo content to the same quality and to offer progression therein.

 

I'm quite open to new dedicated solo content that allowed the use of of multiple companions to get the most out of them. My initial suggestion was made purely because I thought it would be easier allowing multiple companions in current content rather than generating additional new content. I still think heroic quests in their current format would be possible without breaking the game mechanics.

 

Honestly some of the class line quest end bosses were quite difficult, I know that it took me at least 8 attempts to defeat the final boss encounter on my Marauder. I had to figure out what the bosses attacks were and how to counter them, but found the reward didn't equal the effort.

[Inarai]

I'm quite open to new dedicated solo content that allowed the use of of multiple companions to get the most out of them. My initial suggestion was made purely because I thought it would be easier allowing multiple companions in current content rather than generating additional new content. I still think heroic quests in their current format would be possible without breaking the game mechanics.

 

Honestly some of the class line quest end bosses were quite difficult, I know that it took me at least 8 attempts to defeat the final boss encounter on my Marauder. I had to figure out what the bosses attacks were and how to counter them, but found the reward didn't equal the effort.

 

It wouldn't be easier to do it right. The easy way would just create a pile of new problems while solving nothing.

 

And frankly, I don't see how properly complex content could be done with the current AI and control scheme. DA:O did it, sure, but that was with a different style of game, different controls, and so on. You'd be overlaying a second game onto here to do the same thing. single companion, maybe, with progression in companion gear and gear with Presence on it...

 

There's a right way to do this, and it should be done, but there's also a number of wrong ways and those need to be avoided.

[RachelAnne]

Definately support that idea, the companions are somehow obsolete once you are 50 - they should be usefull somewhere, so why not at the 4 men dungeons?

[TheRealDestian]

It wouldn't be easier to do it right. The easy way would just create a pile of new problems while solving nothing.

 

And frankly, I don't see how properly complex content could be done with the current AI and control scheme. DA:O did it, sure, but that was with a different style of game, different controls, and so on. You'd be overlaying a second game onto here to do the same thing. single companion, maybe, with progression in companion gear and gear with Presence on it...

 

There's a right way to do this, and it should be done, but there's also a number of wrong ways and those need to be avoided.

 

Very true.

 

Programming nightmares aside, you'd basically be asking BW to mash Balder's Gate on top of SWTOR.

 

How do you command multiple companions? How do you tell them to avoid breaking CC? How do you tell them not to hit a certain mob that you don't want aggroed on a DPS companion?

 

There's just too much here with very little return.

 

And like I said, SWTOR already has too many reasons to NOT play with other players. Do we really need more still?

[NoxiousAlby]

Definately support that idea, the companions are somehow obsolete once you are 50 - they should be usefull somewhere, so why not at the 4 men dungeons?

 

I'm with you Rachel, I think interactive flashpoints whether as additional new content or modified old content would be fantastic at 50 with 3 companions. Definately something that would keep me very busy for a long time to come.

Edited February 4, 2012 by NoxiousAlby

[TheRealDestian]

I'm with you Rachel, I think interactive flashpoints whether as additional new content or modified old content would be fantastic at 50 with 3 companions. Definately something that would keep me very busy for a long time to come.

 

At that point, you may as well just request "offline mode" so you don't need to pay a monthly fee for the game (and that gives me another idea).

 

Also, for all the bashing you've done of WoW, you do realize that WoW DOES give you the ability to collect the endgame set while never actually raiding, right?

Edited February 4, 2012 by TheRealDestian